"My boyfriend's mom came running out saying, 'Please come in the house. There's someone with a gun!'" Johnston said.

Soon, the 18-year-old would learn that "someone" was her childhood friend. Pittsburgh police took Anjohnito Willet Jr., 16, into custody Wednesday. Known as "AJ," Willet is being held in the Allegheny County Jail facing charges alleging he shot three Brashear High School students.

"He's not the monster they're making him seem at all," Johnston said.

Johnston says what Willet did was wrong, and she doesn’t agree with resorting to violence. But she also says there’s more to the story about why he fired the shots that people should know.

"They're making him seem like a monster, and he shot innocent people,” Johnston said. "No, he got robbed and jumped, and he retaliated the only way he thought he could."

Pittsburgh police said the shooting was a crime of retaliation, but they have not released many details. Johnston says the teenagers who were shot and are now being labeled as victims previously mugged Willet inside the high school in October. She says Willet didn’t press charges or cooperate with police because he was worried it would lead to more attacks. She also says he dropped out and stopped going to classes at about that same time.

"It's called snitching. You don't want to do that these days," Johnston said. "That's where these shootings come from."

"Were there drugs involved?" Action News reporter Matt Belanger asked Johnston. "Not that I know of, but there could have been," Johnston said.

Meanwhile, people like Shannon Williams, whose brother attends Brashear High School, are left wondering about just how safe the school is and what’s to stop more violence in the future.

"He heard gunshots and just hit the deck and ran back into the building,” Williams said. "He wasn't injured, but he could have been because he was right there. This is a 16-year-old boy shooting other young boys. And kids can’t get guns. So how are they getting these guns? I feel like we can stop it from happening in the first place,” Williams said.

Photos: SWAT converges on house after shooting near Brashear HS

Photos: SWAT converges on house after shooting near Brashear HS

Pittsburgh police have arrested a teenager in a shooting that wounded three Brashear High School students near the school's Beechview campus on Wednesday afternoon.

Anjohnito Willet Jr., 16, also known as "AJ," has been charged as an adult with four counts of attempted homicide, aggravated assault and reckless endangering another person.

Lt. Kevin Kraus said the shooting was retaliation for an Oct. 18 altercation in which Willet was the victim of a drug-related assault and robbery at the high school. The incident was reported to school police, but Willet did not pursue charges and instead claimed he would "take matters into his own account," Kraus said.

"We do believe that (Willet) intended to go to that area, to the intersection of Crane and Lowenhill (avenues), specifically to target these individuals," said Kraus. "We have no evidence or information whatsoever to believe that there was anything else other than a targeted shooting directly resulting to an Oct. 18 incident in the school amongst high school students."

The three students were shot outside the high school shortly after the end of classes Wednesday afternoon, prompting a large and swift response from Pittsburgh police and SWAT officers because of initial fears that the shooting happened inside the school building. A fourth person was with the wounded students but was uninjured, Kraus said.

All injuries were described as being of a non-life-threatening nature. Acting Police Chief Regina McDonald said one of the victims was grazed by a shot and walked back to Brashear, which is located on the side of a steep, hilly section of Crane Avenue.

"The one that was grazed in the head made his way back to school, and he was pulled inside the school by one of the school administrators, and that’s how it came out that there was a shooting at the school," police spokeswoman Diane Richard said, referencing initial reports that the shooting occurred inside the high school.

The victims, all male teenagers, were being treated at city hospitals early Wednesday evening. "He's stable. He's been shot in the neck," said Terri Minor, who identified herself as the aunt of Eugene Minor, a 17-year-old basketball player. "This is sad. This isn't right. My grandson goes to Brashear (but was not among the injured). This is crazy. To hit home like this, this isn't good."

Sky 4 flew over Rockland Avenue after the shooting, where a man and a woman -- later identified by Kraus as Willet's father and his girlfriend -- were taken into custody by a SWAT team. Willett was found at a home next door, Kraus said. Six people were taken to police headquarters, but only Willet has been charged.

Initial reports indicated there may have been as many as three shooters in the woods near the school, but Kraus said Willet was the lone gunman. Another juvenile who was with Willet will not faces charges, while a third just happened to be passing through the area at the time, Kraus said.

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